Cop's Outburst After Man Escapes Petty Marijuana Charge Lands Him In Contempt of Court

Chris | InformationLiberation

A tax-slave escaping a petty marijuana charge?! OUTRAGEOUS!

From the Winston-Salem Journal:

A Kernersville police officer was suspended with pay Wednesday after a Forsyth County judge found him in contempt of court for an incident in which he burst out of the courtroom after a trial and loudly confronted a defense attorney.

Officer S.P. Senor, who joined the Kernersville Police Department in 2000, was ordered to pay a $100 fine by Forsyth District Judge David Sipprell. Senor had become upset after Sipprell had found a man not guilty of misdemeanor possession of marijuana after a trial in Kernersville District Court.

Senor was the officer who had stopped the defendant, Dennis Bowyer, for a broken license plate light. A K-9 dog sniffed around the car and Senor searched the car, finding a small amount of marijuana in a compartment in the car.

Bowyer denied that the marijuana was his and said that he did not own the car. Sipprell found Bowyer not guilty after determining that prosecutors had failed to prove under state law that the marijuana belonged to Bowyer and that Bowyer was in possession of it, according to John Barrow, Bowyer?s attorney.

When the trial ended, Senor stormed out of the courtroom and angrily confronted Barrow, Barrow said.

The Winston-Salem Journal reports the cop's annual salary is $47,880, which I would assume does not include overtime nor benefits, that's how much taxpayer money the state gives him to put poor people in jail for petty marijuana charges.
_
Chris runs the website InformationLiberation.com, you can read more of his writings here. Follow infolib on twitter here.

(function(d, s, id) {var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];if (d.getElementById(id)) return;js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id;js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js#xfbml=1";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));

Latest Tyranny/Police State
- Hawthorne, CA Police Arrest Man for Filming Raid, Shoot his Dog in Front of Him
- Shock Video Shows Police Forcibly Drawing Blood
- Los Angeles Deputies Kill Armed Man, 80, in Marijuana Raid
- SWAT Team Kills Armed Homeowner in Dawn Drug Raid
- Police Once Again Mistake Cell Phone for Gun - But This Time, They Open Fire
- Cleveland Police Run Fake Drug Checkpoints on Interstate, Arrest People Who Seek to Evade
- Police Chief Attempts to Shoot Dog, Hits Woman Instead
- Deputy Fired for Running Red Light & Killing Teen Reinstated with Back Pay

sigh...more failed 'war on drugs' effort stories created by law enforcement. You would think a rational society would understand by now that drug use is not a criminal activity. Alterations of consciousness in one form or another has been evident in societies since the dawn of man. Any restrictions in this manner are purely suppression efforts by control freaks. Marijuana will ruin your life and the cops will make sure of that. @69171--I agree--after all, 70% of Americans believe in some invisible sky dude who watches them pee.
20461 is the invisible sky dude a NSA agent? @20461 lol, yes the whole god charade. i guess in order for us to get along we need some sort of galactic babysitter until we mature as a species.

This site contains copyrighted material the use of which in some cases has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Such material is made available for the purposes of news reporting, education, research, comment, and criticism, which constitutes a 'fair use' of such copyrighted material in accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. It is our policy to respond to notices of alleged infringement that comply with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (found at the U.S. Copyright Office) and other applicable intellectual property laws. It is our policy to remove material from public view that we believe in good faith to be copyrighted material that has been illegally copied and distributed by any of our members or users.
About Us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy

View the original article here

Federal Appeals Court Busts Police For Contempt Of Cop Arrest

Eleventh Circuit US Court of Appeals allows false arrest lawsuit to proceed against cops who arrested motorist for being up to no good.

A motorist who was less than cooperative when police performed a traffic stop on her property was vindicated Friday. A federal appeals court made it clear that taking a longer than expected time to produce identification and "being up to no good," was not grounds for arrest.

In an unpublished ruling, the US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit allowed Gina Petithomme to sue the Miami-Dade, Florida police department over the treatment she received at the hands of officers on February 6, 2009. Officers Ronald Martin and Jesus Gonzalez had been dispatched to investigate a suspicious White Dodge with two black men inside at the corner of 148th Street and Northwest 10th Place. Before reaching that location, the officers saw a silver Nissan with a piece of white paper allegedly blocking the license plate. The Nissan was parked on private property.

Petithomme, a black woman, was inside the Nissan when officers came on her property to say they were investigating a suspicious vehicle.

"What was the description of the vehicle?" Petithomme asked.

The officers did not say they were looking for a white Dodge, and asked Petithomme to produce identification and for permission to search her vehicle. Petithomme refused the search. On a third request for identification, Petithomme asked if she could go inside her home to retrieve it. It was granted, and as soon as she left the officers began searching through the Nissan. She returned and upon being asked a fourth time, she said the license must be in her car. She finally found it.

"Here's my identification," Petithomme said, holding within Officer Martin's line of vision.

Enraged, Officer Martin arrested Petithomme on the spot, charging her with disorderly conduct and disturbing the peace. The officers said the woman's attitude showed she was "up to no good." The court of appeals disagreed.

"Plaintiff's questions directed towards the officers cannot demonstrate arguable probable cause for disorderly conduct," the court ruled in a per curiam decision. "Under Florida law, screaming obscenities at an officer is not sufficient to violate the statute, and thus, no reasonable officer could have concluded that asking an officer a benign question could constitute a violation of the statute."

Petithomme successfully argued her Fourth Amendment rights had been violated with an illegal search.

"Here, plaintiff and her vehicle did not match the descriptions or the location given by dispatch," the court found. "Thus, the only circumstances suggesting illegal activity was the white paper obstructing plaintiff's tag. The obstructed tag, however, is insufficient to lead a reasonable person to believe that evidence relating to this infraction would be found inside the vehicle."

Because official immunity cannot be granted to an officer who violates a constitutional right, Officers Martin and Gonzalez are now liable for damages in Petithomme's false arrest lawsuit.

A copy of the decision is available in a 70k PDF file at the source link below.

Source: Petithomme v. County of Miami-Dade (US Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit, 3/8/2013)

(function(d, s, id) {var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];if (d.getElementById(id)) return;js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id;js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js#xfbml=1";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));

Latest Tyranny/Police State
- VIDEO: Aussie Cops Assault Youth for Filming, Threaten Him With Arrest
- Man Charged With Disorderly Conduct For Telling Cop to 'Go F**k Himself'
- Man Faces Five Years in Prison for Releasing Balloons on Beach as a Romantic Gesture
- This Week's Corrupt Cops Stories
- 'Lady Liberty' Tased by Fort Worth officer
- Phoenix Cop Made Famous On YouTube For Tackling 15-Yr-Old Girl Calls 5-Day Suspension Too Harsh
- Undercover Cops Ensnare a Special Ed Student, Get Him Expelled
- Woman injured in LAPD manhunt says cops won't pay taxes on replacement truck

Awesome! I hope she and her lawyer hang the cops out to dry.

This site contains copyrighted material the use of which in some cases has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Such material is made available for the purposes of news reporting, education, research, comment, and criticism, which constitutes a 'fair use' of such copyrighted material in accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. It is our policy to respond to notices of alleged infringement that comply with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (found at the U.S. Copyright Office) and other applicable intellectual property laws. It is our policy to remove material from public view that we believe in good faith to be copyrighted material that has been illegally copied and distributed by any of our members or users.
About Us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy

View the original article here

Court To Twitter: No Time For Appeal, Hand Over Info Or You're In Contempt

Follow @infolibnews!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src='//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js';fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,'script','twitter-wjs');
by Mike Masnick

We've been covering the legal fight concerning the government's desire to access Tweets and other information related to Malcolm Harris, an Occupy Wall Street protestor who was arrested. Twitter had jumped into the case to argue that users have standing to protect their own information, which the court denied. Twitter then said it would appeal, but it appears that NY State Supreme Court Judge Matthew A. Sciarrino Jr. doesn't care, claiming that its failure to hand over the info may put it in contempt of court:

The judge had asked Twitter to show why it wasn?t in contempt of court after refusing to produce information about Twitter posts by protester Malcolm Harris in response to a subpoena from Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr.

?I can?t put Twitter or the little blue bird in jail, so the only way to punish is monetarily,? Sciarrino said.

Twitter and Harris's lawyers point out that this seems to completely ignore Twitter's right to appeal the ruling. Sciarrino again doesn't seem to think this is an issue, insisting that his original ruling was "fair" and Twitter has had more than enough time to comply with the order. Harris' lawyer notes that this appears to be an attempt at railroading, preventing due process from happening:

?It?s pretty outrageous that the D.A.?s office wants to prohibit Twitter from exercising its right to appeal,? said Martin Stolar, a lawyer with the National Lawyers Guild who represents Harris, after the hearing.

Unfortunately, that seems to be how things work these days...

(function(d, s, id) {var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];if (d.getElementById(id)) return;js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id;js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js#xfbml=1";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));

Latest Big Brother/Orwellian
- House Approves Rep. Lamar Smith's Bill To Keep Spying On Americans
- 16-Year-Old Questioned by FBI Over YouTube Video
- New Results From Our Nationwide Cell Phone Tracking Records Requests
- Man Investigated By Police For Buying Ammunition
- Google Adds Pirate Bay Domains to Censorship List
- The Prisons We Call "Airports"
- FBI begins installation of $1 billion face recognition system across America
- Hackers Get Personal Info On 12-Million Apple Users... From An FBI Laptop

Twitter will now go by the wayside as did google and facebook.

This site contains copyrighted material the use of which in some cases has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Such material is made available for the purposes of news reporting, education, research, comment, and criticism, which constitutes a 'fair use' of such copyrighted material in accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. It is our policy to respond to notices of alleged infringement that comply with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (found at the U.S. Copyright Office) and other applicable intellectual property laws. It is our policy to remove material from public view that we believe in good faith to be copyrighted material that has been illegally copied and distributed by any of our members or users.
About Us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy

View the original article here